Team Canada 2018 Unveils Winter Kit with Eye Catching Cinemagraphs

Canadians Love the Winter Olympics

Even if you don’t know much about Canada, you probably know we’re very into winter sports. As a kid, I can remember cozying up by the TV with my family, watching Team Canada pull in medals at the Winter Olympic Games. This tradition continues till this day, and is a common place for many Canadians. From hockey, to curling, to snowboarding and skiing, if there’s a sport that you can play in the freezing cold, we’re all about it. Which makes sense… given the climate and vast landscape, the great white north can truly be a winter wonderland.

Since Team Canada is consistently a power house at the Winter Olympic Games, there’s naturally a lot of eyes on our athletes. This means that our Olympians are always camera ready, clad in their best Canadiana gear. But what will the athletes be wearing at the PyeongChang 2018 Olympics and Paralympics? With the Winter Olympic Games around the corner, Team Canada wanted to release their official kit in style, and Flixel got to be a part of the big reveal.

Hudson’s Bay designed the Canadian Olympic team collection, which was unveiled with the help of 15 Canadian athletes at the Toronto Eaton Centre earlier this month. With the stage set, the audience filled, and the athletes dressed in their Canadian gear, all that was missing was a little snow… Oh, wait, Flixel Studios had that covered. Check out our behind the scenes video below to see how the day went down!

The Olympians modelled the new clothing line, while the audience cheered and snapped photos. Team Canada wanted to showcase the outfits and athletes throughout their social media, but were searching for a new way to engage with their audience. They wanted something eye catching. Something exciting. Something with a little motion…That’s where cinemagraphs and Flixel came in.

“We wanted to tell an engaging visual story that celebrated the strength of our athletes and Canadian identity. We were thrilled to see the cinemagraphs resonate so strongly with our audiences.”

—Georgia Sapounas, Director, Digital | Canadian Olympic Committee

The idea: dramatic portrait meets winter wonderland. Think about those Game of Thrones portraits some of you may have seen earlier this year. With the snow machine revved up, and the lights on point, it was time to make some sweet cinemagraph magic.

Marielle Thompson, Canadian Olympic Ski Cross Champion

One-by-one, the athletes had their cinemagraph portraits taken, giving their best pose while snow lightly drifted around them. Usually we have to really work with the model to get them to stand still, but these Olympians were pros (in more ways than one!). From shoot to edit, it only took around 10 minutes to create each cinemagraph — that’s a lot faster than even standard photography delivery!

The cinemagraphs gained tons of traction on Team Canada social, and many of the athletes shared the cinemagraphs on their personal accounts as well. We’re excited to see the PyeongChang 2018 Olympic and Paralympic Collection live in February, and see hundreds upon hundreds of Canadians proudly support our athletes. Go Team Canada!

Check out our Sport Gallery for some more cinemagraphs of athletes in action.

When Cassandra was six, she was asked to share a story with her class…and hasn’t stopped telling them since. Now she does so through photography, video and writing, but with the same sense of wonder - and love for glitter - as her inner kid.